Exiling Gaza: Washington’s Heinous Plot to Profit from Palestinian Suffering

By: H. Zaïm-Bashi

In a brazen act of imperial arrogance, the United States government has laid bare its contempt for human dignity by unveiling—on Tuesday, February 4—a plan that seeks to forcibly displace the Palestinian population from the Gaza Strip, the culmination of Washington’s destructive meddling in the Middle East. This plan, which has ignited a firestorm of international, regional, and Arab denunciation, was callously tempered on Friday, February 7, when Donald Trump declared that no deadline would constrain its implementation—a tacit signal that this atrocity will be meticulously orchestrated without haste or accountability.

At its core, this draconian proposal is nothing less than a last-ditch effort to engineer the wholesale relocation of Gaza’s inhabitants and transform the beleaguered region into an economic project. In a grotesque inversion of moral duty, the U.S. administration—drawing heavily on the pernicious ideas of Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law—casts the Gaza crisis not as a humanitarian emergency but as a lucrative business opportunity. Kushner’s earlier vision, which championed the establishment of a so-called safe zone in the Negev and the methodical transfer of civilians into and out of Gaza, now serves as the ideological backbone for this plan—a vision that flagrantly disregards the rights and humanity of an entire people.

Yet, this repugnant strategy is not born solely of short-term political expediency; its origins are deeply enmeshed in the broader, corrosive dynamics of geopolitical competition and the ruthless war over energy resources that have surged in the wake of the Russian conflicts and ensuing civil wars. Since the brutal operation on October 7, 2023—a day that marked Israel's savage assault on Gaza—the region’s proximity to the Mediterranean’s rich gas fields has rendered it a veritable prize. Studies published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development reveal that the Gaza Strip, along with the West Bank, harbors vast oil and gas reserves. These studies underscore an appalling truth: while the Oslo II agreement of 1995 granted Palestinians maritime rights extending twenty miles offshore, and the Palestinian Authority inked a 25-year gas exploration contract in 1999, followed by the 2000 discovery of two colossal gas wells with a reserve of 1.4 trillion cubic meters (60% of which is attributed to the Palestinian coast), the very regime now seeks to usurp these resources for its own benefit.

This evolving calamity has only deepened with Netanyahu’s October 2023 incursion into Gaza—a move that is hardly an isolated military maneuver but a calculated continuation of a strategy first outlined in 2014. Israel’s concurrent plan to occupy Gaza and forcibly migrate 2.3 million Gazans to Egypt is inextricably linked to this broader energy agenda. Chilling declarations from the Israeli war minister—who proclaimed, “We will make Gaza everything”—coupled with the recent exposure of a clandestine proposal to transfer 2.3 million Palestinians from Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Desert, reveal an ambition that extends far beyond the destruction of Hamas; it is a bid to monopolize the multibillion-dollar gas reserves embedded in Gaza’s soil.

The audacity of this venture is further evidenced by the developments on October 29, when, less than two weeks after a barbaric assault on Gaza, Prime Minister Netanyahu granted permission to six European companies to commence operations in the Basin gas fields of the Mediterranean Sea—a sector now valued at approximately $524 billion, with significant tracts lying within Palestinian territories. This energy coup dovetails with an even grander scheme unveiled on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, where the United States, Europe, India, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates ratified a new economic corridor spanning from India, through the Persian Gulf, to Europe—a project positioned to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In a striking admission, Netanyahu declared, “The new India-Europe economic corridor project is our biggest cooperation project, and Israel will be the main target of the India-Europe corridor,” thereby laying bare the inextricable nexus between energy control and geopolitical dominance.

Even as former President Trump insinuated that there was no urgency in enforcing this plan, the inexorable machinery of this policy marches forward—a policy that will indelibly shape the region’s political and economic landscape. In the face of such calculated inhumanity, the international community and human rights advocates bear a sacred duty: to champion a reconstruction of Gaza that is genuinely inclusive of Palestinian voices and to resist any measure that seeks the forcible displacement of its residents. To permit such actions is not only to betray the cause of justice but also to imperil the stability of the entire West Asian region—a legacy of exploitation and oppression for which the United States government must be held unequivocally accountable.